Korea and Japan: Facing the Same Problems that Growth Entails
By Akie Seno, MBA 2010
Korea is one of the most familiar countries for me. I was exposed to the Korean culture and people many times with the image of Korea as the closest country to Japan in terms of distance, culture, and race. As soon as I arrived in Seoul, I was surprised about how the commercial cities now look like our cities in Japan. I found a big change since the last time I visited Seoul about seven years ago. This time, my view of the city, including the shape of the buildings, the people, and the fashion were becoming so much like Japan. This was not my impression of the country during my last visit. This time, I felt like I had come back to my home country.
Through the Asian Immersion Program, I found out that Korea is now much like Japan because of its rapid economic growth. If I had seen the situation in Korea 30 years ago, I probably would not say that Korea and Japan are alike. Korea’s rapid economic growth occurred during this short term. Although historically, Korea had conflicts with Japan and China, Korea became successful and developed their country in this short period. Thus, Korea now is now experiencing problems similar to Japan in terms of economics and demographics.
From the presentation of Mr. Lee from KB, I learned that Korea is now having a problem with an aging society, low growth of actual GDP, and a language and culture barrier for foreign funds. These problems are common in Japan. However, it seems that Korea will be better able to manage this situation compared with Japan. Investments in education and efforts to boost international relationships will allow Korea to gain higher potentials to overcome this situation. Korea has a clear view of this goal to achieve development and create a global awareness of its success.
The presentation of Prof. Joe Lawrence from KAIST helped me to understand the difference between Korea and Japan. The Korean mentality is based on “Gi” and “Han” meaning, take the bitter experience and turn it to the power of growth. This explains a lot of things. I had been wondering why Koreans have a strong personality compared to Japanese. Why Korean cities could be both modern and conservative at the same time. They are more aggressive to develop their country, and to affirm their success. They were required to be open. However, they had to change in a short period of time. I saw a lot of advanced electronic technology all over the town; even the mall map had high technological functions. Even Japan is not like that. In a sense, I felt that they wanted to show off how much they have developed to everyone, including those outside of their country. They have to create awareness that they are a successful country. This may sound a little cynical, but it seems that they are trying to change themselves so quickly that the gap between different age segments and different economic segments are getting wider.
Japan’s success happened within 60 years, and now we are still struggling with low economic growth, a high aging population, and a low birth rate. Korea is now faced with the same situation after 30 years, just half of the time that Japan took to develop. As a Japanese national, I have a lot of things to learn from Korea. Their hunger for achievement, the strategy to achieve their goals are good models for Japan to learn from. And I believe we can work together closely to solve the common problems.
